MLP G5: A Blog · 8:01pm Jan 21st, 2018
So, there's been some crap going around about the show ending after season 9 (holy crap, at least 2 more seasons? Awesome!), and the franchise rebooting again.
As someone who's already been through this kinda thing before- several times- with another Hasbro franchise (cough, Transformers, cough), I have thoughts.
What I want to happen:
A sequel to G4, preferably set in the future, preferably following either adult versions of characters we already know like the CMC and Diamond Tiara, or descendants of the current mane 6. This series should continue to teach kids morals and such, but reset the story so that nobody needs to have watched the previous series in order to watch this one. However, fans of the old should be able to notice subtle call backs and references. A few characters, mainly Twilight and Spike, could have prominent roles in this new series as mentor figures of a sort.
What will probably happen:
A regurgitation of G4, with crappier animation, no heart, the same characters but with no personality, and god-awful story telling.
As a point of fact, I point you towards Transformers Robots in Disguise (2015). This series was a sequel to the previous series of Transformers Prime, but otherwise fulfilled the above description in pretty much every way. Here's a link to a review of the series that perfectly sums up why it sucked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDs3H_Tq-Uk
Here's the thing. Making a sequel to FiM will be hard. In fact, I suspect it would be almost impossible. Try writing a fanfic that doesn't require watching the original series, builds its own lore independent of the original, yet still delights fans of the original, and isn't just a blatant copy of the original.
Yeah, it's hard.
It's not like there's much precedent, either. Before Prime and RiD, the other Transformers series that were sequels fared just as awfully.
Back in the 90s/early 2000's, we got Beast Wars and Beast Machines. Beast Wars is beloved to this day for its fun but mature stories, glorious reinvention of the series while still nodding to the G1 continuity, and lovable characters. Beast Machines is reviled for having a grimdark story that made little sense, awful animation even for the time, and for taking a dump on a central piece of the lore (ie, aliens that are machines. Why did they make the planet organic? Why?!).
After that, we got the Unicron Trilogy of poorly dubbed anime: Armada, Energon, and Cybertron. Armada wasn't too bad; the beginning was kiddy and the animation was full of errors, but the overall story was brilliant and matured well, and the characters were quite interesting. Energon was shite, pure and simple. Worst CG animation ever, boring and repetitive plot, and characters that did nothing if you were lucky. Cybertron was slightly better, but not much. Characters took forever to accomplish anything, the animation was still awful, and it was blatantly made to sell gimmick loaded toys, which it apparently did quite well because half those toys are lauded by toy reviewers on YouTube.
But you see what I mean. The pattern with Hasbro seems to be this: allow creators to make something brilliant. Then rush as much as possible to use it to advertise your toys. Then rush a sequel that is poorly made to sell more toys. Then realize that everyone hates what you're doing so bring in a new creator to start the cycle over again. (I'm waiting for the Transformers movies to end their version of the cycle. Please.)
I hope I'm wrong.
I'd like to think that FiM deserves better. Hell, I've only been here about 2 years, but already this show has made a huge impact on me. There seem to be a ton of highly respected people on here who are critical of the show these days- saying that seasons 6 and 7 were terrible. I can agree that both had their low points, but let me tell you:
I use clips from episodes to remake movie trailers. When I do, I load every episode into my video editor. All 150 or so of 'em. Plus some of the movies. All of them. And I go through those episodes to find just the right clip, and often I spend hours just watching the episodes while searching. And I can say that even the worst episode from season 7 (Honest Apple, in my opinion) is better to watch than most of seasons 1 to 3. But having said that, those seasons are still pretty amazing.
So, yeah, FiM is awesome. It deserves either an equally awesome sequel, or to be left the hell alone.
Here's an idea:
Go full meta. G5 is like the reverse of Equestria Girls, with normal humans getting sucked into an alternate dimension where they become ponies. They have to save two worlds, uncover mysteries, become friends with everyone and everything, and make it back home before dinner because they're kids and their parents will beat their asses otherwise. That sounds like fun to me! Reminds me of Code Lyoko a bit.
I think the key to a good G5 will be: taking risks, but keeping things balanced. Never forsake story and characters for a gimmick. Leave the animation for later; if Armada taught me anything it was that terrible animation can be forgiven in the face of good storytelling. Do something new, but don't forget where you're coming from.
So, I hope this has been entertaining. Leave your thoughts below.
I have but one thought: What could possibly go wrong?
4778839
i just don't know what went wrong!
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hasbro, 2021
companies like Hasbro should stick with making toys and that's it', leave the show creating to people who know what they are doing. even still Hasbro sucks at making decent toys, they make cheap mass produced pieces of plastic that vaguely look like a toy from a cartoon. most of the time your buying a lump of plastic with eyes glued on it
The main thing I can say is that I don't get the hate S6 drew. I loved it, personally. I guess it was a matter of Glimmy not yet having grown on people. Similarly, I thought a lot of people really loved S7, and I liked it, but I wasn't quite so over-the-Moon.
I guess what I'm saying is that I'm an iconoclast.
Naw, I dunno what G5 will be like. I think we'd be lucky to get a new generation of young adult ponies keeping the friendship adventures rolling, and with occasional visits from the old M6. I hope they keep the quality high; Amy Keating Rogers isn't Lauren Faust but I get the sense from interviews that she "gets it" about what makes Pony special and she cares about not screwing it up.